A review by marilynsaul
The Painter From Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein

1.0

I had a difficult time distinguishing fiction from fact in this book. Juliang's early life was grueling to read about (but was it real or fiction) and though she came into a Mr. Higgins situation and started painting, it was difficult to actually believe that she was a 21st century feminist living in 1920s China. Was this just the author making her out to be a feminist based on the author's own experience? How much was real? 3/4 of the way through the book, I realized I didn't like Juliang as a person. The author painted her as obsessively self-centered. Her artwork, rather than being a statement against male ownership of women, seemed more to me to be an extension of selling her body as a young woman by exhibiting paintings of her body to the public (primarily men). Her discordant relationship with her husband (who, according to how the author wrote the book, truly loved her) was fueled by her self-absorption. In short, I'm going to stay away from "historical novels" in which there is so little real information out there about the protagonist that the author resorts to immense (and displeasing) fabrication.